Don’t Start a Blog in 2024: Do This Instead

You’ve seen it, you’ve felt it. Everything has changed for creators in the last few years. AI-generated content, tumultuous Google algorithm updates, short-form video on platforms like TikTok & Instagram seizing the throne of how many people prefer to learn & be entertained.

As a writer myself by trade, I say this as the dose of reality we all need to hear… don’t start a blog, do this instead:

First off, don’t worry—those of us who love to write aren’t without a place today. This isn’t a call for doom & gloom. But ignoring the reality that things have changed won’t help you build a business around your joy for writing. You just need a slightly different approach, in order to reach people the way they want today.

🔑 If you want to succeed as a creator and make a living from your content today, you have to think audience-first, not medium-first. This probably means you’ll need to make video central to your content mix. When you create your content that educates or entertains in the medium your audience wants to interact in, you’re aligning yourself to grow with them over the years to come. The reality is that most people now read less, watch more videos & listen to more podcasts.

The good news though, is that blogs aren’t dead. You aren’t being left behind, but you are being invited to an opportunity to grow & change with the ways most people are interacting with content today.

Take for example, these two recent posts on my LinkedIn… the one with a video got 487,000+ impressions and my text-only post got almost 12,000 impressions.

This is becoming more of the norm with the content I share on LinkedIn (and all my other platforms)… video is rewarded, and engaged with significantly more than written content alone.

Make no mistake, how you choose to relate to this transition is everything. Meet it with resistance, and that’ll be your reality. Embrace it, find the fun, and you’ll unlock what I call the creator’s cheat code. Learning new skills and getting good at a new craft will still come with challenges, but making your learning curve an enjoyable challenge will set you up for long-term success.

How you approach content creation has to shift, if you want to stand out and keep connecting with a growing audience. I’m going to share my transition system that’s already made a positive impact on my business—and it’s not just about starting a blog alone.

Let’s talk practically about what these changes mean for you, as a content creator.

The Shift in Blogging: It’s About Your Audience, Not the Platform

Arguably this has long been the case, but we’re now at a crossroads where ignoring the truth that most audiences want a mix of video, audio, and written content in their learning processes, will cost you dearly.

For good reason, a whopping 91% of companies are leveraging video somewhere in their marketing mix…

Many of us are used to thinking of blogs as the end-all-be-all. But—and this is big—a blog is just a means of communication.

A blog is simply one way to connect with people, and honestly, your readers aren’t tied down to a specific platform or format anymore. We have a ton of options for getting our information, so if I want to watch a video instead of read a long article… I can reliably go find a pretty good one from someone on YouTube or TikTok in about 20 seconds.

🔑 Understanding your audience’s challenges, desires & learning styles, means you can reach them in many places today.

It doesn’t matter if your platform is a blog, a YouTube channel, TikTok account, Instagram, a podcast, or something else entirely. What matters is that you know exactly who you’re talking to and why they care about what you have to say.

Before moving on, let’s recap what we’ve covered real quick:

• A blog is still a smart investment to create for yourself (a permanent home base you control on the Internet)
• A written-blog-only is no longer the smartest strategy if you hope to grow a business around your content
• Deeply understanding the pain points & desires of the audience you want to reach is an essential foundation
• Creating content in a mix of formats (video, audio, written) is the best way to maximize your reach & engagement

Now, the next key step is learning a whole lot about who your audience is.

10 Key Questions to Define Your Audience

Knowing your audience inside-out is no longer an optional one-time activity. Without this fundamental understanding, we’re just posting content and hoping someone finds it by accident. That’s not a sustainable growth strategy.

Let’s narrow this process down with ten important questions to ask yourself:

1. Who is my ideal reader or viewer? Why are you creating for these specific people, and what can you uniquely offer them?
2. What’s their demographic? Think about their age, gender, location, education, job, etc.
3. What are their interests and hobbies? Which topics or activities do they enjoy? What makes them tick?
4. What problems or challenges do they face? Where does your audience struggle, and how can you be the person to help solve these issues?
5. How do they prefer to consume content? Do they read blogs? Watch YouTube videos? Scroll through Reddit? Get into podcasts?
6. What social media platforms do they hang out on? Are they Twitter enthusiasts? Instagram lovers? TikTok peeps? This makes all the difference today.
7. What are their core values and beliefs? It’s not just about money or success—what motivates them on a deeper level?
8. Which other creators, websites, or blogs do they follow? This is crucial for understanding what style, tone, or energy they connect with. Plus, it can lead to future collaboration.
9. What kind of content do they share with others? Peek at their social feeds to see what they’re excited to pass along to their friends.
10. Why do they engage with creators? What emotional or practical needs are they looking to satisfy—are they here for advice, entertainment, or inspiration?

Once you’ve developed a solid understanding of who you want to reach, it’s time to explore how to reliably reach them today.

Find Your Platform: Video-First Isn’t Optional Anymore

Once you understand your audience, the next questions are… where and how do they want to connect with you?

Today, this almost universally means adopting a video-first creation process. When you create a video covering a particular topic or process first, you’ve already done the ‘hardest’ part. Then, you can use AI tools like my Video to Blog Post Generator inside RightBlogger to instantly turn that video straight into a draft blog post, packed with all the SEO tidbits & social share snippets you’ll need in order to promote your content.

This post you’re reading right now is a living example of my video-first creation process in action…

🎥 If it feels terrifying to hop in front of the camera… trust me, I get it. There’s no way around this fear, until you decide to go straight into it and make your first videos anyway. What I expect you’ll find (like I did), is that once you’re doing it, making videos is no longer scary. Be kind to yourself as you get used to seeing yourself on camera.

There’s no one-size-fits-all platform that’s inherently better, but there are platforms that are preferred by your people. As content creation shifts, video isn’t going anywhere—it’s only growing, and it’s the platform AI is least suited to excel at for a long time. If you’ve watched even the best AI-generated videos, you know what I mean.

The simple truth is that people connect with faces and personalities, which makes video the primary way to build deeper relationships with audiences today. If video seems intimidating, challenge yourself to experiment with making one video for a platform like YouTube, Instagram Reels, or TikTok. The trick is not to aim for perfection—that can come later.

Even my own YouTube channel is packed with “not-so-perfect” videos and guess what? That’s ok! People want authentic connection. So, choose a platform and try it out.

I can promise, you’re going to be your own harshest critic as you wade into learning how to make videos. The people watching your content won’t analyze every little thing about why your video isn’t perfect. If it delivers them value, you’ve accomplished your goal.

Here’s a trick I’ve learned for dealing with the negative voice inside my head:

1. Recognize and call attention to the negative things I’m telling myself in the moment
2. Pause and take a few deep breaths
3. Ask myself who’s voice or words are really appearing here (they’re almost always a script that was handed to me from another person or societal expectations)
4. Remind myself why I’m here, making this video to help others through something I’ve learned the hard way
5. Accept imperfection as a feature, not a flaw, of my creations

If you have value to share, that’s all that really matters. Just be yourself ❤️

Repurpose with AI (But Don’t Let it Own You)

Keeping up with the demand of creating all this content a few years ago was a really significant resource commitment. Today, AI has become one of the best new tools at your disposal—but you’ll also want to avoid these common AI blogging mistakes.

If you start with video content, you can now repurpose it across multiple channels with the help of AI tools.

As I showed above, one of the tools I love most is my automatic YouTube Video to Blog Post Generator that I built into RightBlogger. You just paste the link to your video, and the tool will quickly write a first draft blog post in your own voice. Plus, it gives you SEO recommendations and you can even create social media copy based on the content of your video, right away.

The beauty here is that you’re still the main driver behind your content—you’re just speeding up the production and promotion process. AI isn’t replacing you; it’s helping you with tasks that would otherwise take several hours.

But don’t let AI take over everything in your process… that’s where some creators start to lose their authentic voice.

What has (and always will) make your content unique & special, is you. Features like MyTone inside RightBlogger go a long way when it comes to using AI to help with your content creation, because it learns from your style and replicates it better & better over time as the AI familiarizes itself with your voice and tone.

Begin by asking yourself where you naturally shine. Which topics in your niche come easily to you? What are you genuinely excited to talk about? AI can’t capture that the way you can. That’s your magic.

Use automation to handle the tedious stuff, but always let your knowledge and interests lead the way.

Build Deeper Connections, Don’t Just Post

A blog will always be important—it’s your home base on the Internet where you get to fully control the look, feel, and how you interact with your audience.

That said, I do encourage you to also start thinking about the platforms where your audience spends their time. The places where you can build deeper connection & communities—as opposed to only publishing single pieces of content that sit on on your blog, waiting to be found.

Here are three activities I recommend looping into your regular routine:

1. Start by finding a consistent, manageable rhythm for publishing blog posts, videos, on your main 2-3 social media channels, and with an email newsletter as your audience begins to grow. Just this right here will take time, so allow yourself to really feel into what’s realistic for you right now.
2. Next, go deeper by creating a dedicated community for your audience to interact with you and with each other—this could be through platforms like Circle, Skool, in Facebook groups, or even a Discord channel.
3. Being present in the conversations within your community matters. Listen actively to what your audience needs, the challenges they’re sharing about, and you’ll seriously never run out of fantastic ideas for how you can help them.

If you give people value, they’ll reward you by letting you know exactly what they need from you.

Taking Your First Steps with a New Creation Process

The good news is that blogging is still a viable way to reach people—but it’s no longer the only option, or necessarily the best primary medium if you want to grow a sustainable business around the content you’re creating.

You’ve got the tools (both human and AI-powered) to start building connections that go beyond just blog posts.

Explore new ways to create content that makes sense for your audience. Try making videos, recording podcast episodes, sharing short-form vids on your social channels, being active in the spaces where your audience already spends their time online.

These are the ways forward as a content creator today.

It’s not just about writing a blog anymore—it’s about creating a community.

Use My 30+ Powerful Free Blogging Tools Today

When I first started blogging, I couldn’t afford fancy tools. That sucked. And that’s why I’ve built a stable of powerful free blogging tools ranging from keyword research to an AI article writer, blog idea generator and more. Forever free for all to use—no strings attached.